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Would you pay £295,000 for a Porsche 991 GT3 RS?

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Josh Barnett

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Yesterday, on one particular prominent motoring website, you may have noticed the news that the first Porsche 991 GT3 RS appeared in the UK classifieds, complete with an astronomical £295,000 price tag.

Admittedly this car featured the £6,248 carbon ceramic brakes and £2,024 front lift kit (plus a few other choice options) but that was still an almost unbelievable hike of 111 per cent over this new Rennsport’s sticker price of around £140,000.

We know from our issue 128 first drive that the Porsche 991 GT3 RS is (very) good but is it really worth paying such a substantial premium to get your hands on one?

The car for sale at Porsche Swindon didn’t even come with the desirable Clubsport pack.

For one, £295,000 would buy you two very nice 991 GT3s – one in Comfort spec for road use and another kitted out with the Clubsport package for some intensive track work. That would be a better bet in my books, especially as the standard GT 911 is still enjoying its own period of above-list trading values.

While demand was always going to outstrip supply of Weissach’s latest Rennsport buying appreciating new cars is a tricky business where one needs to tread more carefully than the classic scene.

Hypothetically, you could have skipped the huge waiting list (some owners aren’t expected to get their 991 RS until March now) by buying this car for £295,000 but, at some point in the not too distant future, more Rennsports will flood the market as people look to make tidy profit on the £131,296 list price.

Two 991 GT3s would be a better setup than one Rennsport, no?

When that happens, prices will inevitably drop, leaving you looking at a potentially substantial loss from your £295,000. Of course, if you really want a 991 GT3 RS, you’re not too worried about the cost but, for many of the people buying at these prices, they’re hoping to make a further profit.

The same situation has happened on the 991 GT3 market. That car was offered with a favourable £100,540 list price, with supply not meeting demand. The first cars on the market were nearly touching £200,000. However, now, with more cars in the classifieds, prices have dropped back to around £140,000.

You’d feel pretty stupid if you were the one that wrote a ‘2’ at the start of your cheque six months ago. The same will surely happen with the RS (and that’s without even considering the fact this is a car that hasn’t yet had a chance to develop a legacy). At least with a 997 GT3 RS 4.0 you know you’re buying a legend.

Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0s are part of a long line of manual Rennsports and are therefore more deserving of their price tags.

Of course, the most interesting thing about this car (other than its price tag) is the fact that it was being offered by an official Porsche Centre in Swindon, rather than a supposedly less scrupulous independent dealer.

A few days before this 991 RS made headlines we were actually tipped off to the car’s existence by a Total 911 reader (who is still on the Rennsport waiting list). He had been approached by Dick Lovett but wasn’t sure that the salesman’s story was watertight.

Apparently, the car was bought by an older gentleman who, after just 24 hours (and 141 miles), returned to the dealer professing the 991 GT3 RS “too stiff”. This seems farfetched given that Porsche hotly vetted potential Rennsport owners.

This won’t be the last time a 991 GT3 RS reaches the second-hand market. But Porsche may be stopping many from hitting the classifieds too soon.

Surely the owner (if he can really be called that) knew what Porsche’s GT and RS machinery was like to drive? The 991 GT3 RS isn’t much more uncomfortable than previous 997-generation Rennsports. Like our reader, we smell a rat.

You may have noticed that we are referring to this 991 GT3 RS in the past tense. That is because, since yesterday, the car has now disappeared from Porsche Swindon’s site. Maybe someone really did bite the bullet and buy it but it’s more likely that management from above stepped in.

After all, Porsche desperately tried to prevent speculators from getting their hands on 991 GT3 RSs so, with the car disappearing from sale very quickly after making headlines, we wouldn’t be surprised if Porsche in Germany had a hand in putting a stop to such activities. That is perhaps the damning answer to our original question.

Would you pay £295,000 for a Porsche 991 GT3 RS? Join the debate in the comments below or head over to our Facebook and Twitter pages now.